[caption id="attachment_4232" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Shadowbringers takes us to "The First", one of several shards of the universe that's split off from "The Source". This universe, while somewhat similar to our own, has been overrun by Light. We are sent there to save The First from being overtaken, and (by doing so) to become the Warriors of Darkness. This is a fascinating storyline, and I'm…
In just two days, the gates will open wide and the adventures of Eorzea will descend upon the First Shard to guard it against the flood of Light. The preliminary patch notes were released today so everyone's been pouring over them in hopes of learning what information they can before the big opening day celebrations on Friday. Here are the things I'm looking forward…
Sitting on a plane, being able to write on my blog... technology is a beautiful thing, isn't it? I'm flying back from Chicago (by way of Charleston, SC) to Nashville. I had the opportunity to speak on Gamification at two very awesome (and very different) events: Digital Summit Chicago and Type-A Parent & Lifestyle Blogging Conference. One for marketers and brands, another for the…
I wrote yesterday on Gutenberg, WordPress' soon-to-be editing experience, as it was highly mentioned at WordCampUS here in Nashville over the weekend. Yesterday, I focused specifically on the outer facade of Gutenberg - movable blocks, layouts, and modular approaches to content. Today, we're going to look at the back-end. For a WordPress developer, this is where their experience may become a little less rosy.…
[caption id="attachment_4232" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] ...we have syntax. Commented code that Gutenberg recognizes to store its information. Those paragraphs are pretty standard fare, but there could also be parameters... ...stored as an array. This is the first of two pain points a lot of developers seem to have, as a structure like this is just not sustainable in the long run. Commented code is normally…
In less than one week, WordPress enthusiasts from all over the globe will converge on Nashville, TN for WordCamp US - the annual pilgrimage to celebrate, learn about, and meet others interested in WordPress. Nashville's been my home for over 10 years now, and has a very strong WordPress community here. I've been very privileged to work for an organization that celebrates WordPress' role…
Since Twitch released their 'Twitch Extensions' SDK, I've been having a lot of fun playing around with different things I can integrate into Twitch's panels. I've build a WordPress Panel and I'm working on Tumblr and Instagram Panels (which require a lot more API work). But the crux of everything I've been working on relies on getting data from source to destination in a…
On September 14, Matt Mullenweg announced that WordPress was rethinking its use of the React.js library due to Facebook's clarification on its patents. The short story: Facebook released React under a modified "open-source-ish" license (called BSD+Patents) that allow them to judiciously revoke the patent if a service violates the terms of service (specifically, if they use React to build a system that would compete…
There are really no words to describe the feeling I had seeing the Eclipse today. I could try to throw out words with empty meaning like "fantastic", or "magical", but they seem to fall flat when I think back and recall how I actually felt. Holly and I had decided early on that we wanted our kids to experience the Eclipse with us; all-together,…
I had an amazing time speaking and networking at the #WPCampus Event in Buffalo this past weekend. I was fortunate to be able to share some insight on the realm of Security, and make it (hopefully) more than a fruitless, confusion quest. First of all, here are my slides: https://www.slideshare.net/studionashvegas/level-up-your-wordpress-security And now, the caveats/prologues: I had someone reach out on Twitter and mention that…